Assagioli speaks about psychosynthesis as a science and an art and shares his concern about the material nature of current psychology. He ask: “Why should an intuition, a telepathic perception, a premonition be less worthy and acceptable for study than the scientific study of an instinct, an impulse, or a tropism?”
By Roberto Assagioli, Date unknown. Translated from Italian by Gordon Symons. Original Italian title: Psicosintesi E Vita Spirituale. (Archivio Assagioli – Florence).
In the chaotic intertwining and conflict of disparate elements and tendencies from which contemporary life and culture is woven, one can nevertheless see a growing anti-materialistic orientation and an increasingly decisive affirmation of spiritual values. It is a reaction against old forms and ideologies, a dissatisfaction with purely material values, noble and “sincere” aspirations towards something different and better than ordinary life. But many still lack a sure awareness and a clear vision of the goal to be achieved and the true nature of spirituality; or what it is and what it means to live spiritually. I therefore think it appropriate to first of all seek some clarification in this regard and allow myself to do it in a way contrary to the good manners adopted in the field of culture, at least in the 1800s, that is, by quoting myself.
But now in the 1900’s, we are recognizing that to convince, to make ideas and orientations penetrate our hearts, to stimulate action, it is not so much a question of always saying new, elegant, ingenious things, but of tirelessly insisting on the fundamental principles, the basic ideas, on the major directions of travel. I therefore feel justified in repeating, after a few years, something of what I had the opportunity to say in this room when talking about the Spirituality of the 1900s. Indeed, what Mussolini happily called “Marconi’s heroic patience” is a highly and genuinely spiritual manifestation. And likewise the asceticism of an Edison or a Maria Curie, who renounced all the comforts and all enticements, even good ones, of human life, to give all of themselves to their ideals of scientific research and technical invention, is not intrinsically less spiritual than that of many noble religious souls of the past and present. There is, however, another great aspect of spirituality that modern man, turned towards the outside world and towards practical activity, generally does not know, or does not understand and does not appreciate. It is what constituted the essential part of spiritual life in past centuries and in other civilizations, and it is the inner life, the experience of higher and different states of consciousness, the achievement of contacts and communions with Beings and with spheres of transcendent realities.
Without this life and interior experience, the spirituality manifested in action remains unaware, not composed, not direct, and therefore often sporadic, unstable and precarious. One who carries out a heroic act today, a generous sacrifice, may fall back to mediocre or even unworthy levels of life tomorrow; whoever gives all of himself to a superior cause may not understand at all and even bitterly fight against other ideals no less noble and worthy than his own, and against those who pursue them, and he may not recognize spirituality if it assumes what are unusual and extraneous aspects and expressions for him. On the other hand, cultivating exclusively the inner, solitary, mystical aspect of the spiritual life has sometimes had the effect of mental constraints, fanaticisms and imbalances. It therefore seems clear to me how it would be very appropriate to achieve a mutual integration of those two great forms of spirituality, so as to promote a broad, rich, multifaceted spiritual life that includes everything that is good, true, and beautiful in man and the universe.
The concept and practice of psychosynthesis is inspired by this great unitary ideal. Let’s see quickly – within the limits granted by time and above all in order not to arouse a sterile ideological discussion but a fruitful exchange of ideas, a comparative examination of experiences and results among those present – let’s see how Psychosynthesis is making its contribution to the establishment of this new type of integral spiritual life. Psychosynthesis as a science aims to investigate with a sound and rigorous scientific method the superior manifestations of the human soul, the genius, inspiration, intuition, enlightenment, the various states of mystical consciousness, supernormal psychic faculties. There is some who might deny or question the possibility or legitimacy of subjecting these facts to scientific investigation. This can be done from two different, indeed opposite, points of view.
Let us start by distinguishing two not split but different and distinct aspects of Psychosynthesis: Psychosynthesis as science and Psychosynthesis as an art and application. Some, philosophers of certain schools, consider the spiritual world as a transcendent, unknowable reality, they place a clear separation between the field of scientific knowledge and that of metaphysics and faith and deny science the right to intrude on a terrain where it has no competence and which therefore must remain closed to it. From what I will be presenting, the reasons why I consider this rigid gnoseologic dualism to be excessive and unjustified will be clear, and I hope convincing. But I must recognize that the contemptuous and incomprehensible attitude taken by many scientists towards spiritual manifestations justifies the distrust of philosophers and believers and their aversion to opening the access gates to what they rightly consider sacred ground, allowing those to enter it whom they consider to be barbarians and vandals!
In the opposite camp, that of positivist science, such facts as these were considered too vague, subjective and fantastical to be worthy of being subjected to the strict methods of science. Even worse, there has been an attempt, based on alleged pseudo-scientific principles, on arbitrary materialistic dogmas, to devalue and defame those superior manifestations of the human soul, trying to reduce them to masks of instinctive elements or to morbid manifestations. Those attitudes are totally unjustified because they are based on two major errors:
1. The right to assume as scientific only that which is measurable and weighable, which is reducible to quantitative data – as if the world of quality was not as real and worthy of study.
2. That of believing that we can explain (or rather, as they say in English “to explain away”) higher manifestations by reducing them to lower elements of expression. They do not realize that by doing so they are emptying them of their real content and value. They seek life in a corpse and, not finding it there – they deny it’s existence! What does scientific study mean, in fact? It means to accurately and precisely collect large masses of facts, order them, compare them with each other, observe them without theoretical preconceptions, without taking up passionately entrenched positions, without trying to prove theses or reach particular goals. It means promoting suitable experiments, to try out and to carry out test methods impartially, exercises, trials and to note the results. Finally, it means trying to interpret the data thus collected by trying to ascertain its laws, evolution, varieties, and inserting the results achieved in the sum of knowledge, integrating this particular science into the totality of human knowledge.
Now all this can be done, all this must be done for manifestations of spiritual life, as well as for those of normal human life and for those of animal life. Why should an intuition, a telepathic perception, a premonition be less worthy and acceptable for study than the scientific study of an instinct, an impulse, or a tropism? Why couldn’t an ecstasy or an illumination of consciousness be scientifically studied to know if it is a dream or a delusion? But there is more. Certain phenomena such as telepathy and prediction experiments and others also lend themselves to the use of the quantitative method which positivists are so fond of. Indeed, there was no shortage of scientists with an open mind and a courageous soul who fully adopted the position that I proposed and reaffirmed it. By way of honor I quote first of all W. James, who in his classic book Varieties (translated into Italian under the title Religious Consciousness) after an excellent methodological introduction, subjected the study of the various aspects of spiritual consciousness to a dispassionate, respectful and rigorous process, that is a model of scientific probity and dignity, even if its conclusions cannot be considered exhaustive and definitive. After him there was a valiant and not so small group of scientists who investigated the dark and arduous regions of the supernormal: the best of them are Crookes and Lodges, Geley and Osty, Driesch, Ribot and under certain respects Jung, and from us, Morselli, Bottazzi, Mackenzie and currently Cazzamalli. Also Rhine.
Here it is appropriate to draw attention to a singular and highly valuable case, concerning the noble figure of Pietro Ubaldi. He, an educated and modern man, an English teacher in a middle school in Umbria, experienced a series of psychospiritual phenomena of the greatest interest: first of a mediumistic type, then of an inspirational nature, finally of high illumination and mystical communion. With his gift of dissociation, he was able to observe with a scientist’s spirit the development of these phenomena in him and he described them admirably, thus giving us precious documents. I highly recommend reading it. See Le nouri – The Great Synthesis (edited by Hoepli), Mystical Asceticism (soon to be published) and also the comments on him published in Cr. rel. of […].
But these are still exceptions; these studies are still far from having reached the development, the recognition, the necessary means which they deserve. I will just mention a small fact as a clear indication of the current state of affairs, which I believe I can name without absurd and regrettable exasperation. In a recent American manual of psychology, very widespread, and also valuable in certain respects, two chapters, constituting 29 pages of the total 300 are dedicated to the development of the mind in animals and the mentality of monkeys. The author declares there that he passes with regret over the fascinating theme of the descent of man from animals. On the other hand, the theme of genius is not very “fascinating” for the author because he deals with it in less than a page; incidentally, in the chapter entitled The Abnormal, a section on … guess what? … Facial Asymmetry!!
Intuition is hardly mentioned in that text, and is considered to be a lower form of thought and feeling. There is no mention of the higher states of consciousness such as enlightenment, mystical states, etc. The “I” is considered an airy hypothesis “which cannot be investigated” !! One might think that the author (I do not name him because since we are on a spiritual theme I want to follow the Christian maxim of addressing the sin and not the sinner!) One might think that the author has a special mental narrowness or a personal fact or a “complex” against spiritual life. However, the serious problem is that he is not an exception, but the rule! It would not be difficult to do the psychoanalysis of this “removal” of the supernormal from the consciousness of psychologists and I indicated some aspects of it in one of my writings on The Psychology of Misoneism, on the occasion of a battle fought together with my valiant friend Dr. William Mackenzie (whom I am pleased is present here) about one of the most surprising metapsychic manifestations: that of thinking and calculating animals.
It would be a useful and rather amusing study, but I think it is more profitable to spend the not too much time left in delineating the other aspect and contribution of Psychosynthesis: Psychosynthesis as art. With regard to art also, there are many disparities and misunderstandings (and in which field are there not? – they say that in the field of mathematics and I do not doubt it, however much it is for me a “hortus conclusus!”). Everyone remembers the ancient and the recent discussions on form and subject, between “contentists” and “calligraphists”. I think it is more appropriate and psychological to examine the two opposing, but not opposite, indeed both necessary, aspects of inspiration and technique. Each of them have been both valued and overestimated.
In general, technique now has rather a “bad press” in the artistic field. If we then move on to the educational, psychological and spiritual fields, we feel that technique is treated with suspicion and often with contempt. In my opinion, we often go too far in this direction. It is very right to put spontaneity, inspiration, the free activity of the spirit, synthesis, first. I will certainly not be the one who disputes their supremacy and doing so would not be at all in the directives of Psychosynthesis – but this does not imply denying the right place and the necessary function of a well-understood technique. Our great artists of the Renaissance did not disdain to deal with technical details and materials such as the preparation of colors, or that of wood, or the walls they had to paint. Turning to the spiritual field, all the great schools of spiritual life of the past, while aiming for transcendent purposes, for the complete liberation of the human soul, have not disdained to give the right place to the disciplines and techniques of inner development. Just remember the various Yoga methods of India, the wise regulations of the Pythagorean Institute of Crotone and, closer, in all senses, to us, the admirable and wise ascetic-mystical disciplines of the great Christian masters of spiritual life. Every age, every movement, every institution has had similar disciplines, corresponding to the particular doctrinal settings, to the mentality of the various times, to the various capacities and needs of their disciples.
Therefore, the problem of the internal disciplines suitable for modern man is far from […] and idle. How can we cultivate inner life in today’s conditions? How can we discipline our instincts and emotions, how can we concentrate our mind, direct the current of our thoughts? How can we make good use of imagination? How to strengthen the will? And going, so to speak to a higher octave, how can we arouse the admirable superior energies latent in us? How to raise our consciousness in the bright spheres of the superconscious – how to awaken and use intuition? How to foster the creative activity of the spirit? How to enter into communion with the transcendent Reality? And finally how can we combine all the disparate physical, emotional, mental and spiritual elements of our complex nature in a beautiful harmony, in an organic synthesis according to a sound hierarchical principle of values?
But that’s still not enough. We are not isolated, and we cannot and must not isolate ourselves. So how can we use the gifts of the spirit for the sake of our fellow men? How can we put them at the service of the family, of the nation, of humanity? How to harmoniously insert the individual inner life into the wider spiritual life of groups and of the various human associations? All this is the field of study and action of Psychosynthesis: these are the contributions it proposes to make to the spiritual life of humanity. These are real, necessary and urgent problems and tasks. And in fact, Psychosynthesis is not a personal conception of a single scholar. There are an increasing number of awakened spirits who, whether or not they use the name, invoke it, advocate it, contribute to forming it. Zweig concludes his book The Healing Soul, and Paneth his book Souls Without a Compass, proclaiming psychosynthesis as the only true remedy for the evils of modern man. Maeder and Jung, Keyserling, Schmitz, Sheldon (to name only the best known) say it in other terms, equally. Indeed, the time has come to promote a vast movement of spiritual culture in order to eliminate, or at least to mitigate the serious, dangerous current imbalance between an excessively tense, labored, exasperated external life and a neglected, weak, unconscious and insipient internal life, in order to direct man towards the highest goals, towards the most noble and fulfilling achievements, towards the ineffable joys of the spiritual life.
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